Canada’s best men’s basketball player still wants more in 2024.
Hamilton’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished second in 2023-24 NBA MVP voting, the best performance among the league’s 27 Canadians and a record high. His Oklahoma City Thunder suffered a disappointing exit in the second round of the NBA Western Conference playoffs, while the Canadian men’s senior team finished fifth at the Paris Olympics.
Gilgeous-Alexander said he didn’t realize what he was missing until Canada lost 82-73 to France in the Olympic quarterfinals on Aug. 6.
“The opportunity to get a medal and win, we didn’t get a chance to do that and to be in it, you take it for granted,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after the Thunder visited the Toronto Raptors on Dec. 5. . Every four years I have a chance to win an NBA championship, every four years I have a chance to try and win the Olympics. “
The Canadian team qualified for the Olympic men’s basketball competition for the first time in 24 years at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, defeating the United States 127-118 on September 10, 2023, and won the best bronze medal in the history of the event.
At last summer’s Olympics, the Canadian team advanced to the knockout rounds as the third seed in Group A with a perfect 3-0 record in the group stage. Canada then clashed with France in the quarterfinals, finishing in a disappointing fifth place.
“I think the World Cup is obviously great. I think the Olympics could have been better,” Kamloops, B.C., center Kelly Olynyk, who also plays for the Raptors, said Wednesday. “Obviously, it’s not the ending any of us wanted, but when you look back, it’s the best ending we’ve had in years. The first time we’ve done this in years.
“I guess that’s a small victory.”
Canada has finished fourth twice at the Olympics: in Montreal in 1976 and in Los Angeles in 1984.
“I think a lot of people on our team think we can do better than bronze at the World Cup, and we can do better than fifth at the Olympics,” he said.
Gilgeous-Alexander says he would work even harder if given another chance to win an Olympic medal.
“Four years from now, you never know what’s going to happen, where I was four years ago, where I’ll be four years from now, but this is a special opportunity,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “If God willing I could take this opportunity, I would definitely approach it differently.”
The quadrennial 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles have begun, and Canada is performing well on the international stage.
Canada’s men’s basketball team, without any NBA players, went a perfect 4-0 in Group C of the 2025 FIBA America’s Cup Qualifiers, with wins over the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Nicaragua last year. The group stage will continue on February 21, when Canada will face the Dominican Republic for the second time.
As host nation, Nicaragua has qualified for the quadrennial North American Championship. Argentina won its third title in 2022 and Canada finished fourth in a tournament postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s going to continue to rise, and it’s not going to be a linear rise to the top. There are going to be hiccups and bumps along the way,” Olynyk said. “But we have a great group of young guys, talented guys and even some younger talented guys.
“I think the future is still very, very bright and the key is to stay together, play together, build cohesion, chemistry, continuity and keep growing.”
Gilgeous-Alexander also leads the NBA in 2023-24 and continues to do so this season.
He averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 assists, 5.5 rebounds, 2 assists and 0.9 blocks per game last season, finishing behind Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic in MVP voting for the first time since Steve ·Nash had back-to-back MVP awards in 2004-05 and 2005-06, the Canadian’s best NBA seasons since then.
The Thunder ranked as the top seed in the NBA Western Conference with a record of 57 wins and 25 losses, but were upset by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round.
Gilgeous-Alexander continues to dominate this season, averaging 30.3 points, 6.3 assists, 5.5 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 1 block so far.
“It’s no different,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Oklahoma City’s 2024-25 season. “It doesn’t feel different at all, it’s the same group of guys with a few additions and it blends in really well.
“We’re just taking it one day at a time. Trying to get better every game, every opportunity, and then hopefully by the end of the year, we’ll be where we want to be.”
The Thunder suffered another upset in the NBA Cup Finals on Tuesday, losing 97-81 to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Although there are five fewer Canadians in the NBA this season than last season, the future looks bright with Toronto’s Zach Edey set to make his debut with the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 23.
The seven-foot-four center was drafted eighth overall out of Purdue last summer after winning his second Naismith Award as College Basketball’s player of the year.
Edey is the third male player to win consecutive Naismith Awards, joining Hall of Famers Ralph Sampson and Bill Walton.
